Summer Arctic Sea Ice Recovers From 2012, But Trend “Decidedly” Down

The Arctic’s melt season has concluded, and this year the sea ice rebounded from its historic low last year, according to a release Friday from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Sea ice extent fell to its lowest level of 2013 on September 13, reaching 1.97 million square miles (5.10 million square kilometers). Levels in the previous year fell to a record low of 1.32 million square miles (3.41 million square kilometers).

“While this is a very welcome recovery from last year’s record low, the overall trend is still decidedly downwards,” NSIDC director Mark Serreze said in the release. That trend is quite visible and striking in our recently published Interactive Map: The Changing Arctic. Though the ice cover can be seen fluctuating from year to year starting in 1979 when tracking began, its overall cover undeniably shrinks.

The areas that saw a rebound in ice this year were the Beaufort, Chukchi, and East Siberian sea regions; the Canadian Archipelago also retained more ice, keeping the Northwest Passage closed, according to the NSIDC.